A tour of Cevennes National Park (Parc National des Cévennes)
Lying astride the departments of Gard and Lozère, the Park covers four different and typical regions:
- The Aigoual and the Lingas, a granite and schistose massif mostly covered in forests,
- The Cevennes Valleys, schistose country typified by chestnut trees and goat and sheep farming,
- Mount Lozère, a granite massif associated with cattle-raising, with its summit at 1699 metres.
- The Causse Méjean, a limestone plateau at round 1000 metres altitude, mutton farming land.
Flora: of the 200 species that have been inventoried, broom, briar, juniper, cranberries and rosebay willow herbs populate the landscape according to altitude.
Fauna: If hunting in the Park is authorised, it is because of the need to cull certain species, especially wild boar and even stags and roebuck, which have been brought back.
Cinereous and griffon vultures have also been brought back, and are thriving in the territory, whereas the great snowcock is still very rare.
A few beaver colonies, in the rivers of the Cevennes, round out the originality of the fauna. So, whatever the manner in which you approach it, by car, on foot or horseback, by bicycle or on skis, keep your eyes open or better still, use binoculars!